The Parable.(Kevin Hughes) Author's Note: Is this a true story? Or a Fiction. Or both? I don't know. Do you?

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I held the baby. It was so cute, lovely, sweet. Everyone stopped me to peer in the blanket. Their faces would light up as the joy of seeing such innocent fresh life burbled and cooed in front of them. I carried that baby everywhere. I kept it fresh and clean. I never set it down. Not once. Not in over fifty years. I would cuddle it, rock it, talk to it, and keep it alive.

Over time, less and less people asked to look in the blanket to see the baby. Fewer and fewer people wanted to see my baby, eventually they didn’t even want me to talk about my baby. Still I kept talking to the baby, smiling at it, keeping it fresh and new. It never grew old. It never grew up. It stayed a lovely little bundle of gurgling joy. My baby.

One day I noticed that the blanket covered everything. I couldn’t see the beautiful lovely baby face, fresh and new, smiling up at me. I was walking along the shore of the ocean with the baby cradled in my arms. I stopped to peel back the blanket. The baby was gone! All that remained was a jelly like outline of a baby…and the somewhat smeared looking outline of a head and face.

There were two flat button like eyes floating on some of the jelly like smear - I tried to gently push them back into about where the eyes should be. They disintegrated. All that I was left holding was a blanket with a jelly like stain outline of a small baby. I cried. I dropped to my knees. I sobbed into the blanket washing away some of the jelly like smear of memories.

I buried the blanket in the sand, just on the edge of the surf. I knew when the tide came in, it would wash away the blanket…leaving behind…nothing.

I stood up straight. Squared my shoulders. For the first time in fifty years, I walked alone. Not carrying a baby in a blanket.

Then….

I woke up.

My first thought was: “Oh, my gosh. What a dream.”

I wondered about it for a second as my eyes unglued from sleep and my mind chugged up the steep incline to fully awake. It had seemed so real. Now, I have to tell you all, I am pretty much a Science Guy. Science says that dreams are just the brain windmilling to keep itself functioning while you are asleep. There isn’t any sensory input while you sleep, so the brain just kind of slips into neutral and fires off random bits of the previous day or two to keep the gears oiled.

This dream was different. Was it a portent? An omen? A sign. I wasn’t sure. Then it hit me.

It was a parable.

A parable!

The Baby was my First love. A love I carried around for fifty years after it ended. Like all first loves, it was born innocent, fresh, sweet. When that First Love ended, I refused to let it die. It was over, but not done with. No wonder people stopped asking about it, or making remarks. I kept carrying it around. Unable to let it go, set it down. Even though I found another love, one that I cherish with every ounce of my being. I still hadn’t let go of at least letting the “baby” become a friend.

The parable was clear. The baby was gone. Washed away by time and reality. I had finally put it to rest. My soul was washed clean. Free from the what if’s, could have been’s and immature reasoning that wrapped the little baby for decades. I was free.

I made a cup of tea. I tried to dredge up that baby, to smile at it, to stroke one cheek lightly with my finger tip, to feel the softness of its existence. I couldn’t. I took another sip of tea. Looking out the window I saw the world as it is now. Changed. The dream still fresh in my mind, I went into the bedroom and kissed my wife of over forty years.

She murmured:

“I love you too.”

I crawled back into bed and slid one arm over to rest on her thigh. She snuggled back into the light pressure of my palm. I could feel her smile even tho I couldn’t see it. I went back to sleep. There was no need to carry the baby in the blanket anymore. The woman I truly love was sleeping next to me, wrapped in our blanket.

I dreamed about how lucky I was. I felt her hand wrap around my fingers.

I drifted off into a sweet dreamless sleep.

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